Celebrating the 4th anniversary of the Abraham Accords

When Americans watch the images coming out of the Middle East, it is easy to think about the region as hopelessly mired in chaos and war. It is therefore all the more important to recall the promise of a region moving toward cooperation, dialogue and mutual understanding as represented by the Abraham Accords, which were signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and also Israel and Bahrain, at a White House ceremony on Sept.15, 2020. The Abraham Accords established fully normal relations between Israel and each of these two Arabian Gulf countries. From the other end of the Arab world, Morocco established its own relations with Israel about three months later.

The Abraham Accords marked a different approach to Arab-Israeli peacemaking, including people-to-people engagement in the form of trade, investment and tourism, as well as scientific, technological and medical exchanges, and interreligious dialogues. I have watched these relations flourish since I assumed the position of director of the American Jewish Committee’s office in Abu Dhabi three years ago. While there is no question that this new approach to peace has been challenged by the vicious Hamas attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, and the resultant multi-front war that Israel is waging against Hamas, Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies, it is essential to bear in mind that the Abraham Accords remain intact. It is greatly to the credit of the courageous leadership in the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco that this is the case. The success of these relations is very much an American interest as well since a peaceful Middle East has been the aim of U.S. administrations for decades.

The possibility of normalizing Saudi Arabia’s relations with Israel remains the subject of intensive, ongoing discussions, despite the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and the subsequent multi-front defensive war in Gaza. While the completion of a series of interrelated Saudi-U.S. and Saudi-Israeli agreements may be dependent on the American political calendar as much as on the end of hostilities in Gaza, the fact that the Saudis continue to express interest in the benefits of deepened security and energy relations with the U.S., in tandem with a peace agreement with Israel, is a strong indication that Riyadh’s interest has not waned in building a new regional security and economic architecture.

The Hamas invasion of Oct. 7 was the product of an Islamist extremist ideology of hate and destruction, the same ideology that gave us the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In both cases, terrorism on a vast scale triggered wars that continue to shake the international order. The extremist project aimed at radicalizing the region’s youth threatens peace and stability across the world.

The Abraham Accords represent the antithesis to this fanatical nihilism, an antithesis in which Israel is an accepted part of a Middle East. This is the vision in which Jews, Muslims and Christians all contribute constructively to the phenomenal economic growth of a region that represents the world’s highest concentration of capital, energy and transportation connections.

The Iranian regime’s obsessive pursuit of Israel’s destruction is a threat to the achievement of this hopeful vision. In the past 20 years, Iran has steadily developed its network of proxies and clients throughout the region. Its goals are to tighten a “ring of fire” around Israel, to undermine the security and stability of key Arab neighbors, and to raise the pressure on the U.S. to withdraw from the Middle East. Iran’s pursuit of Israel’s annihilation is not rhetorical excess, as some claim, but a centerpiece of the regime’s ideology. Israel deserves the support and understanding of the international community as it fights to regain the security of its borders and its airspace.

As we talk about this cooperation and this new vision for the region, we must also speak about Israeli-Palestinian peace. Before Oct. 7, I believed that the Palestinians would gain a lot if they embraced the Abraham Accords and the regional peace and prosperity that they promised. Now, it will take time to rebuild that sense of hope and opportunity that existed one year ago, but with the support of the emerging networks of regional partners, this work must resume once the fighting ends, the hostages are released and Hamas’ catastrophic reign of terror in Gaza has ended. PJC

Ambassador (ret.) Marc J. Sievers is the director of AJC Abu Dhabi: The Sidney Lerner Center for Arab-Jewish Understanding. A U.S. diplomat for more than 30 years, he served across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in Turkey, including postings in Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. This article first appeared in The Times of Israel.